Blogs from Black Sea, Turkey, Middle East - page 7

Hanging out at a bus station in Istanbul on a Friday night in the height of Summer is not something I want to do again! Everyone tells me how great the Turkish bus system is and I'm sure it is. My first experience just happened to be chaos! Cumhur decided to come to Safranbolu with me as he hasn't seen much of Turkey so I was happy to have company. Not to mention someone who could speak Turkish with me as it's taking me a little while to forget the Uzbek and Russian I've learned over the last month and pick up some Turkish vocab. Our bus was meant to leave at 1am and when we arrived at the bus station there were hundreds of people waiting for their buses that were supposed to have left ... read more

It has been over two years I have not been to my fathers home town. As Turkish Airlines started flights between Istanbul and Sinop now there is an alternative for the hectic 12 hours bus journey. Also another good reason I have was to see my fathers boat in the sea, which he has been struggling to build for three years. Sinop is a very old port city of Anatolia whose history dates back to the Hitite times, the first civilization founded in Anatolia. As having a good natural port and located on a peninsula which can easily be protected, it was always an important trading town. Its name comes from the daughter of the river god in Greek mythology, whose name was Sinope. The town was also an important colony of Roman Empire and home ... read more

The bustling border crossing at Hopa was nothing like the sleepy, rural, countryside post I had crossed to enter Georgia two days earlier. Tractor trailers, vacationing Russians, and a much more official (border-ish) mood filled the air, and made it rather unpleasant. To the left, handsome tall green Turkish mountains rose up to towering heights. To the right, the Black Sea stretched out coldly under an ominous, cloudy, late evening sky. We were routed between barbed wire and chain-link fencing, as the crossing is under heavy construction. Presumably, this means trade between Turkey and the Caucasus countries - 2 outta 3, that is - is enjoying healthy growth, and that the border is being expanded to accommodate the resulting traffic. It was a push-your-way-to-the-makeshift-kiosk type of queue for immigration. With a few questions in Turkish and ... read more

On se disait que ça faisait longtemps que nous n'avions pas vu quelque chose d'exceptionnelle. On ne veut pas dire que la Syrie et la Chypre n'étaient pas jolies mais plutot que ça faisait un petit bout que l'on avait pas eu la chance de visiter de grandes merveilles comme les Pyramides ou le site de Pétra. Et bien on a été servi lorsque l'on s'est rendu dans la région de la Cappadocce, situé au centre de la Turquie. Le coin est connue pour ses paysages lunaires, ou les roches peuvent prendre des formes inimaginables. Peut-être avez vous déja vu des photos de la vallée de l'amour? Si non, vous comprendrez en regardant nos images pourquoi on lui donne ce nom...pas besoin de chercher très loin! Pour visiter les environs, nous nous sommes arrêtés à Goreme, ... read more

The Pontic Mountains (Turkish Doğu Karadeniz Dağları) are a range of mountains in northern Turkey, whose eastern end extends into southeastern Georgia. The range runs roughly east-west, parallel and close to the southern coast of the Black Sea. The highest peak in the range is Kaçkar Dağı, which rises to 3942 meters elevation (12,933 feet). The North Anatolian Fault and the Northeast Anatolian Fault, which are east-west running strike-slip faults, run along the length of the range. The mountains are generally covered by dense forests, predominantly of conifers. The Northern Anatolian conifer and deciduous forests is an ecoregion which covers most of the range, while the Caucasus mixed forests extend across the eastern end of the range, which is known as the Kaçkar Mountains. The narrow coastal strip between the mountains and the Black Sea, known ... read more